See chapter 1 for disclaimers.
CH. 25 Decisions Made in the Heat of Battle
Bloom and Sky moved at a steady, ground-eating pace. Neither wanted to wear themselves out, as they knew the witches would be hunting them. They couldn't afford a slower pace or rest stops, though. Returning to Alfea was imperative. Getting past the army enemies between them and Alfea, however, was going to be a problem.
"The best course," Sky offered as they walked, "is to head through Blackmud Swamp to Majix and grab transport there to Alfea. We may also find reinforcements there, or be able to call for some."
"Sounds reasonable," Bloom agreed. It might be the shortest route, but that didn't mean they could reach their goal quickly, and the delay gnawed at Bloom. She wanted to be there, supporting her friends and teachers and solving the problem. Instead, she was hoofing it through a forest, still hours away from Blackmud Swamp, which would take the better part of a day to cross, since they had to avoid main roads that would be clogged with monsters marching on Alfea.
Fortunately, they hadn't run into any monsters. It was possible the Trix dismissed them as a threat since they had driven Bloom off without her getting anywhere near regaining the Dragon's Fire. He hoped that was the case. Their overconfidence gave them at least some advantage.
Sky noted her pensive mood with some concern as they walked. "Fretting won't get us there any faster, Bloom."
"I know. I just hate it. We need to get through this and back to Alfea. I'm certain we have the key to stopping all of this if we just look at it the right way."
"Maybe. Hopefully, Griffin will have some ideas on the subject. You can be sure Faragonda and Saladin won't be idle."
"I know." She continued to fret. Sky decided to let her be.
They were forced to stopped at the edge of the Blackmud swamp. The sun was setting, and crossing it at night was out of the question. After a bit of searching, Sky found a spot between the roots of a large tree that was reasonably well hidden and sheltered from the elements. They settled in to rest, taking turns sleeping and keeping watch.
Bloom tried to rest, but her mind kept going in circles. The longer they took to return to the school and end the threat posed by the witches, the more likely it would take drastic measures to stop them. Those were measures she didn't want to think about.
"Might help if you talked about it." Sky offered, realizing she wasn't going to sleep any time soon.
Bloom considered how to tell him. Just coming out and saying it would be simplest, like ripping a band-aid off, but she found that she couldn't. Instead, she decided to work up to it. "As far as Faragonda could tell, the spell that raised the army is tied to the power they've stolen. It ends when they lose their power."
"That makes sense." It was also very convenient, he realized. They didn't need to capture the witches and force them to end the spell or perform some complicated ritual themselves.
Bloom pressed on, still trying to put off discussing what was really bothering her. "The longer they have it, the more damage they do, and the more their power grows simply by the nature of the Army of Decay."
"The more destruction they cause, you mean." Sky nodded in understanding. "The more…corpses they have to add to their substance."
"Yeah. More or less." She winced at the image that thought created. "It is in everyone's best interests to end this quickly."
"If you're too exhausted to fight when you get there, you won't be of much use to anyone."
"True, but not what I was getting at." She bit her lip, worrying, and too distracted to be annoyed at the 'mother hen' behavior. Bloom knew she should just come out and say it. She knew. "The more time it takes to beat them down, the longer the death and destruction continue."
"Yes." Sky knew she was hesitating over telling him something, but he also knew he couldn't push her to say it.
"I've been in this position before. In Aincrad. It was horrible then, and its worse now. I…need to tell you about…this one mission."
Sky waited.
"The threats we faced there weren't just from the computer-generated monsters. There were a lot of different reactions to being trapped in the game. Some hunkered down in the towns, hoping to wait it out. Some took up weapons to fight their way out. Some gave up hope." She broke off, remembering those who had taken their own lives, either by simple suicide or by throwing themselves into battles they had no chance of winning.
"Some," she pushed on after a moment. "Some viewed it as an opportunity. You see, when someone died in Aincrad, it was like a hologram being turned off. The body pixelated and vanished. No messy corpse and no physical evidence. There were some players who took the chance to let their inner demons run wild. They did things they knew they could never get away with in the real world. The worst of those came together and formed Laughing Coffin… The murderer's guild."
Sky stared. "Murderer's guild? That…" He shook his head, not knowing what to think. He had been taught that there were many different reactions to the stress of battle, including what Codatorta had called a 'loosening of morals.' This, however, was not something that had been mentioned in lessons.
"Yeah. I don't get it either. They became a real problem for the rest of us. They would actually hunt other players like animals and kill them. I think they even had a point system or something."
"That's sick."
"Eventually, the other guilds decided that we had to do something about them, but hey kept moving around, and were hard to track. Several of the guilds kept an eye on known and suspected members and watched for patterns, gathering evidence. One of the smaller guilds had established a prison facility on the third floor, specifically to contain threats like them, and the place was guarded by guild members and volunteers. Laughing Coffin was canny, though. Almost impossible to get a lead on."
"But you found them." Sky prompted her when she dropped into a tense silence, ruminating on the past.
"Yeah. Heathcliff…" She broke off, grinding her teeth at the mere thought of the man. "He got some intelligence that suggested the location of their latest base. Spies had reported their comings and goings, so we even knew the best time to attack. He arranged a large party to raid their base and capture the ones in charge. We hoped the guild would fall apart without the ringleaders."
"Makes sense." Sky nodded. It was a sound strategy. He had a feeling, though, that it hadn't gone as planned.
"I was put in charge of the raid, and I hand-picked the fighters. It had to be done fast, as we didn't want word of our raid reaching Laughing Coffin. There had been a highly placed spy in the ranks of my guild, and no one banked on him being the only one. I chose carefully, picking people from the Knights of the Blood Oath and a couple of the smaller guilds that I knew I could trust. Then we set up on their base and watched till it was time."
OOOOOOOOOO
"How are we going to play this?" Aiko asked. "You know they won't hesitate to kill us, but I, personally, don't want to stoop to their level."
"Me either." Bloom admitted. "That's why we're doing this now. Most of them should be out and about. We saw several leave already. It should be just the leaders in there. That means we outnumber them by a big number. We should be able to beat them down and force them to surrender without any bloodshed."
"That doesn't mean we shouldn't be prepared for the worst." Boreas pointed out. The tank was a gruff, older player that favored a war hammer. Bloom recalled someone telling her that he was a soldier in the real world. "No risking yourselves just so we can avoid killing."
"Agreed." Bloom sighed. "No stupid risks." Her tone was reluctant, but she knew he was right. She doubted she'd be able to actually kill anyone, though. Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.
"It's time," Aiko noted, checking the display on her stat screen. Bloom nodded, glad to have Aiko there. The shorter woman was as cool under fire as a glacier and was one of the most seasoned of the Knights. Aiko had fought beside Bloom on many occasions, saving her life a couple of times. Her presence was a comfort.
They moved in carefully, choosing their approaches to the only point of entry the spies had discovered in order to catch any spotters that Laughing Coffin had in place. There were none, as the guild relied on secrecy rather than strong and obvious defenses. It went exactly as planned until they reached the main chamber.
At the center of their base was a large main chamber that served as a common area and a meeting room or training area as necessary. A balcony running around the edge provided a gallery from which any members not participating could watch. The main floor and the balcony were filled to near capacity.
OOOOOOOOOO
"It was a trap." Sky shuddered at the thought of what Bloom's team had walked into. The information about the base, he reasoned, had been leaked deliberately to lure in just such a group.
"Yeah. Their entire guild was present. Those we saw leave, came in after us and sealed the doors. We had no choice but to fight."
OOOOOOOOOO
"Tight formation! We planned for this!" Bloom drew her weapon, denying the murderer's guild any sign of fear. The possibility had been considered that this might be a trap, and plans had been made accordingly, but there were far more Laughing Coffin members than any of them had realized. If the fight was allowed to degenerate into a free-for-all, none of them would make it out.
The battle was joined and despite their best efforts, quickly degenerated into the kind of fight Bloom didn't want. Their tactics for breaking enemy formations were a nasty surprise from a group that didn't engage in pitched battles.
On one level, Bloom knew that there were too many for 'nice guy' rules. Still, she didn't want to kill another human being. Almost against her will, she found herself going for disabling strikes, and she saw others of her party doing the same. Forcing herself to correct her approach, she began trying, reluctantly, to kill her opponents. Her lack of commitment to the tactic must have showed, however, and several of her opponents laughed and mocked her even if they couldn't get through her defenses.
Then she saw Asami run through from behind. The girl screamed and vanished even as her killer turned to swipe at Hiraku who was struggling with a much larger opponent. Too far away to help, Bloom opened her mouth to shout a warning, but the blade passed through Hiraku's neck before she could make a sound. The head didn't fly off as it might have in reality or in some of the gorier games, but that didn't make him any less dead.
His killer didn't notice, as he was already moving toward another target.
Bloom ducked and altered her block as a woman with a cruel smile and a vicious looking axe took a swing at her. Her blade didn't meet the haft. Instead, it cut through one of the arms holding it. Shock and the subsequent loss of control of the heavy two-handed weapon sent the axe flying out of her remaining hand, leaving her open, and Bloom shoved her sword through the killer's chest.
She didn't wait to see the result but went after the one that had killed Asami and Hiraku.
OOOOOOOOOO
"I stopped thinking after that and just acted. When the battle was over, we had lost 10 people. Laughing Coffin had lost 20, and of those 20…I killed four."
"You didn't have a choice, Bloom." Sky pointed out gently, seeing how her actions upset her. "You and your people would have been wiped out if you had kept fighting to disable."
"I know." Her tone firmed and she stopped slumping dejectedly. "After the fight, I sat and thought about it for a long time, and I came to the conclusion that I didn't regret killing those people. I only regretted that I didn't do it sooner."
"I can understand that." Sky admitted, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the revelations. This, he knew, was pure Tyger, focused and pragmatic. Was that the point the personality had begun to form? He knew next to nothing about psychology, but he did know that what Bloom described had been traumatic for her.
"I killed four people." She gazed out into the night, unflinching but unwilling to meet his eyes. "The reasons don't matter. I ended four lives, and I can't change that any more than I can bring back the people they killed. I…haven't told anyone else this, and I don't want to. I don't want to think about the way my parents and friends would look at me."
"Look at me, Bloom." Reluctantly, she turned to face him. She found his expression serious, but it lacked the condemnation she'd feared. "You went through a terrible ordeal and made a hard choice. What you did doesn't make you a murderer." Something occurred to him. "How did the others cope?"
"They didn't. Kirito killed two of them, and I think he just blocked it out. Forgot about those two people." She looked down. "I never could. It might have been easier, but I couldn't let myself do that. It would have been disrespectful. Whatever else they were, they were still people."
"From what Codatorta has told us in the past, that's the best way to see it. If you get to the point where you don't care, it means there's something wrong. It's worth saying again, though, Bloom. You're not a monster. You're not a murderer."
"I know, but I have trouble seeing it that way most of the time. There should have been a better way, even if I know there wasn't. I'm afraid it's going to be the same with the Trix." She snapped her mouth shut, horrified. She'd said it. She'd come out and said it.
"You're worried that you might have to kill them?" Sky was very uncomfortable with the idea, but he tried to hide it. His training as a warrior had taught him that such thinking was necessary, but he still balked at it.
"If it is the only way to save lives. I don't want to. It's not Plan A, but the possibility exists that there won't be another way." Bloom felt like crawling into a hole. Where were those words coming from?
"That's true, I suppose," Sky allowed, trying not to show any disapproval. It was the kind of pragmatism that he would expect from a veteran soldier and that he had come to expect from Tyger. The shortest route to victory. That victory didn't have to mean that a life was lost, but the idea didn't bother her overmuch, apparently. He worried how the notion was affecting Bloom, though. "Being ready to do what is necessary is one thing. Planning out the death of an enemy beforehand is something else entirely."
"I know, but plans are more effective than the simple willingness. If it becomes necessary, and I hope it doesn't, then a clear strategy, laid out in advance, has a better chance of succeeding." She looked down at her hands. "If I'd had a plan that day…" Tears started to run down her cheeks.
Sky could almost see Tyger fading into the background. He didn't know what to do about Tyger and the Trix. He didn't want to see the girl he loved plot someone's death, even if it was only a contingency and even if it was the Trix. The potential of their deaths didn't worry him. He was only concerned with what it would do to Bloom. Not knowing what else to do, he took her in his arms and held her until she fell asleep.
OOOOOOOOOO
Yui found Techna going over the defenses she and the others had set up for the umpteenth time. Timmy was with her, which was no surprise. The two got along quite well, and most felt sure a romance was in the works, but at the moment, neither of them was thinking along those lines. Alfea and its students were showing the affects of the repeated attacks. A siege mentality, as Yui had learned it was called in her research, wasn't healthy, but it was impossible to avoid at the moment. Techna was trying to keep busy, but had passed the point where anything useful could be done.
"There's such a thing as overpreparing, you know?"
Techna ignored Timmy's comment and checked one more calculation on her tablet. "If we tweak the emitter a bit, we can get another minute or two out of the shield at full power, and that could save lives."
"I know, but all of the emitters have to be kept carefully in balance, otherwise it will all fall apart. Better to settle for what we have than try to redo every emitter and risk not having it ready when the next attack comes."
Techna bit her lip as she thought furiously for a moment. "I know." Her shoulders slumped. "I can see a potential way around that, but we don't have the time. I just need to be doing something."
Timmy nodded. "The waiting is the hardest part, but you need to rest while you can. You can't live at red alert. The stress will eat you up, and you won't be ready despite your best efforts. I've seen it happen."
"I know. I've read studies on the subject." That was just one of the things she had done to try to keep her mind busy. What she'd read, however, had only given her something new to worry about, much to her chagrin.
Timmy decided not to comment on that. "We've done everything we can without more time, power or troops."
"I know. We're not likely to suddenly acquire more of any of those at this point."
"Maybe we can." Yui made her presence known.
"Yui? What are you doing here?" Techna glanced back at the main building. Yui should have been restricted to the inside of the building by the projectors' range.
"I had one of the students aim one of the projectors out the window. I had an idea, but I wanted to talk to you about it to see if it could even work, before I got anyone's hopes up."
Techna and Timmy exchanged puzzled looks. "Okay," Techna asked. "What's the idea?"
Yui explained, going into as much detail as she could. It was based on a limited understanding of techno-magic. Techna considered the idea. It would take a little time to set up, but she thought it could work. She wasn't sure she saw the point, though.
"The most they'd be able to do is create a distraction," Timmy pointed out. Then, he looked thoughtful. "Might be useful, if used properly. How many do you think you can arrange?"
"I'll have to ask," Yui admitted.
"It's worth a shot." Techna agreed. "And it would make a fine way to stay busy until the next attack." It would take time but not much in terms of power or resources. Yui's presence outside the school building proved that. "I'll talk to Miss Faragonda while you check."
Yui nodded and glanced at Timmy. "Can you open the way?"
"Sure."
OOOOOOOOOO
Miss Faragonda was dubious about the idea, but she saw no reason to stop them from trying. Saladin, who had been meeting with her when Techna arrived, thought it might have merit and agreed to lend a couple of his walking wounded to the set-up effort, as it would only require a little fetching and carrying on their part.
Yui expected that she would have the harder task, but the conversation and subsequent meetings went better than she expected.